Mainsail

headsaildownwind sailfor classic sailboats

Sails built for traditional yachts and incorporating such features as cream and tanbark fabrics, narrow width panels, external bolt ropes and 'classic' finger style patches and finishing. The design of traditional sails is carried out with our CAD software.. but the similarities between modem and traditional quickly end as the finesse and traditional sailmaking skills required to understand and build classic sails cornes to the forefront. Neil Pryde is pleased to hâve on its staff sailmakers with years of ‘on the tloor’ expérience and who hâve built classic sails in the traditional format and now with CAD. It is a labor-intensive effort to design classic sails, but one tliat results in a quality shaped and designed sail. Shown below is an exploded view of a gaff mainsail showing the complexities of design and prior to nesting for cutting on the computer driven cutting machine. We make use of the best I lemingway Bartlett U.V. résistant thread (V-138) for longe vity and durability. This coupled with traditional finger style patching makes for strong and traditional look. Reefs would be ‘banded’ from lufTto leech to minimize cloth distortion while in reefed conditions. We can also provide ‘extemal’ boltropes for those looking to mimic classic sail construction. Gaff mainsails corne in two tlavors, with or without battens. This decision in large part dépends on the final ‘look’ the customer is trying to achieve, with the latter being more traditional in appearance. Panel layouts are crosscut and the panels can be ‘split’ into narrow panels for a more traditional look. In the case of Tanbark or Cream sails, we can oflfer edge tapes